A cascade control strategy for a space nuclear reactor system

This work presents a linear feedback control for the space nuclear reactor power system TOPAZ II. The point-kinetics approximation with six-delayed-neutron-group is used to represent the neutron ®eld dynamics. A favorable choice of input control variables is demo- strated, which leads to a cascade control con®guration with two classical either PI or P con- trollers. The strategy is based on linearizing-like feedback control endowed with a modeling error estimator via a reduced order-observer. The e€ectiveness of the control law to the tracking of a given thermal power pro®le in the start-up regime and the tracking of a given electric power pro®le in the operation regime are illustrated via numerical simulations